In any large food dispensing facility, such as a restaurant, a hospital, a school, a prison and so forth, the sheer volume of foodstuffs prepared requires the use of specialized and heavy duty equipment. Many foodstuffs require extensive and varied preparation even before cooking. Likewise, many foods such as lamb, pork vegetables, etc., are marinated or soaked in a vinegar or soy solution or a salt brine or a special marinate solution to tenderize the food and enhance the flavor. Furthermore, almost all foodstuffs must be washed prior to preparation. This function is often accomplished by soaking the food in extremely hot water which not only cleanses the food but also begins the cooking process and reduces the total cooking time, thus saving time and energy.
These three processes alone, i.e. breading, marinating, and preparing, if done manually, piece by piece, would require such extensive labor costs that most of the aforementioned facilitates purchase machinery capable of processing large quantities of foodstuffs at a time. In the past accomplishing each of the three mentioned tasks usually required three separate machines, a breader, a marinator, and a prep unit. The present invention is capable of accomplishing all three of these tasks in a single apparatus.
The following references were uncovered during our search and appear to be germane to the patentability of the present invention:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,801,545, Schottle PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,068,912, Shaw PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,334,575, Erwin PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,696,778, Moore PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,928,634, Gasbarro PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,739,743, McKee PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,855,965, Gordon PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,955,529, Reed PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,521, Booth
None of the references cited here combines the functions of breading, marinating, and preparing in a single, mobile apparatus. Likewise, the structure of the cited references are substantially different from that employed in the present device. Furthermore, no reference was found that utilizes the unique rippled contour of the sifter to cull out the undesirable clumps of breading that often forms during the breading operation and other large objects which otherwise may contaminate the flour.